🧱 Archers thread #128: Alice lobs a brick, Emma hurls brickbats, Neil is a brick. Cement your relationship with The Archers here.

[Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g]

Thank you, @PseudoBadger, for kicking off this long, long series of Archers threads.

All views on The Archers welcome here! New blood welcomed. We don't all agree on all points and most of us are posting tongue in cheek a lot of the time, so don't worry about revealing that you collect superhero figures, or other unusual things.

Spoilers: not on this thread, please. We don't wait for the omnibus to discuss the weeknight episodes, but we do try our best to avoid cross-contamination from www.mumsnet.com/Talk/radio_addicts/4197199--The-Archers-spoilers-thread-6-Cant-wait-for-7-02pm-Join-us-here, where spoilers are positively welcomed!

For newer listeners, lurkers or those who just have no idea what we're talking about, @DadDadDad has created this useful thread: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/radio_addicts/3557323-For-Archers-fans-a-guide-to-acronyms-on-the-long-running-discussion-threads-and-any-other-meta-thread-questions-you-may-have - BOOP point for him! (See thread for explanation.)

Apologies for not using any of the suggestions offered for this thread's title. I'll paste them in here instead to get us started.

I like the leeway pun here from @ThePawtriarchy: Bacon, Bores and Booze. Elizabeth needs convincing, Helen needs some leeway and Alice is in crisis.

@nettie434 gets to the nub of what's been happening recently: Beechwood, Batman and Booze: Rex's pigs and Helen and Lee have new homes but will Lee's collection of action figures plant the apple of discord in their sylvan idyll? Alice's alcohol problems continue to cause friction between the Aldridges and Carters. Has anyone warned Borsetshire Children's Services what awaits them?

Great one liner from @PseudoBadger - ‘Nobody puts Captain America in the corner’.

And a timely bit of advice from @JanFebAnyMonth: If this evening’s episode has raised any issues for you, please call the BBC Helpline post on this MN thread for details of organisations which might help you.

So, off we go again! We may get back to five episodes a week before the next thread. Here's hoping that it's Friday we get back, not Sunday.

*Adam’s cheating!

I enjoyed Brian listing all Adam’s screw-ups. With that litany of errors behind him I am astonished the partnership hasn’t voted for him to be dismissed before. He would never have kept his job after the cherries if it wasn’t a family farm. I think Brian has been pretty decent and measured about all of this bearing in mind it all stems from the missing £5k. Alice really is the golden girl though…

Yes, it was on Ian.

In an ideal world, Adam would leave Home Farm and become so busy on some new project that he rarely speaks anywhere near a microphone. Sooner or later, the production team is going to have to grasp the nettle and give us some news from Grey Gables, which was reeling from the explosion before the pandemic, so IRL would now probably have gone bust. Ian is very wise to be looking for an alternative venture and high end mobile catering might work. How much help Adam could be to him in setting that up is debatable.

Just by his voice alone Adam would drag Ian down so would be no help to him!

KimikosNightmare
Brian was obviously laying out the markers for a backtracking.

He generally has offered Adam a way to step down off his high horse. I expect Adam will take it this time as he has so many others; and if he doesn't, Ian will make him do so. What led to Adam's weekend of passion with Pawel in a cheap motel was Ian saying he'd leave Adam if he didn't do as Brian told him to about some hill or other than Adam was planning to die on, then stomping off to work and not having time to discuss the matter.

I know it's a plot device but I hate it when SW think that keeping something big and obvious secret between spouses is realistic.

If I lost my job or had even an inkling of losing it there is no way I could or would keep it from DH as it would have a massive and immediate impact on both of us.

I think Ian gets a raw deal from the SW as jolly old doormat Ian. I'd love to hear him absolutely go postal and lose it with Adam (and go a bit Emma) in telling yet another entitled Aldridge (Macey) a whole barrowload of home truths at high and angry volume - preferably in the middle of the village fete

Ian always goes postal or reaches for the nuclear option, nothing new there. He has been holding the threat to leave him over Adam's head ever since they became a couple. Doormat has never been his part in that relationship, and he always gets his own way.

I suspect Adam is afraid to tell him about losing his job, not withholding the information out of pride.

@Flumpaphone

I know it's a plot device but I hate it when SW think that keeping something big and obvious secret between spouses is realistic.

If I lost my job or had even an inkling of losing it there is no way I could or would keep it from DH as it would have a massive and immediate impact on both of us.

I think Ian gets a raw deal from the SW as jolly old doormat Ian. I'd love to hear him absolutely go postal and lose it with Adam (and go a bit Emma) in telling yet another entitled Aldridge (Macey) a whole barrowload of home truths at high and angry volume - preferably in the middle of the village fete

I know someone whose husband lost his job and didn't tell her. By the time she found out they had huge debts and eventually divorced. It does happen.

Did Ian ever find out that Adam cheated on him?

@MilesOfSand

Did Ian ever find out that Adam cheated on him?

Not sure about the sexual affair with Pawel, but Rob made a point of telling him about Adam kissing Charlie and Helen seeing it, and Ian has been using it against Adam ever since; that is why Xander exists.

Ian wanted a bahbee who might look like Ian's mahmee, and prove to his father that he, Ian, was a Real Man -- and when it was established that Ian was not capable of producing the necessary sperm, he required Adam to provide it, quite forgetting why he had claimed to want the bahbee in the first place. Adam wanted to adopt if they did anything (he was not keen on altering his life to that extent), but that wouldn't do for Ian once Helen had told him what he thought. And he has the permanent moral high ground because of Charlie, with whom Adam did not in fact have sex at all.

Thank you @AskingQuestionsAllTheTime !

I’m not very happy at Smugula and Neil having all these cosy chats and now exchanging gardening/horsey favours. We all know what Ms I’m-A-Massive-Christian-Bore-Until-It-Comes-To-Someone-Else’s-Husband is like.

Funny you should say that. I've been getting a slightly creepy feeling when Shula and Neil are together, although it seems wrong to be feeling like that when Neil is involved.

Smugula cannot compete with Susan's chilli con carnal.

Ms I’m-A-Massive-Christian-Bore-Until-It-Comes-To-Someone-Else’s-Husband
I don't love Shula (sorry, poster who does) but whose husband has Shula misappropriated? Locke's relationship with Usha was holed below the waterline anyway, iirc, and they weren't married.
I cannot imagine any circs in which a sane woman could fancy Neil. Ugh. Smells of pigs and has tolerated Susan for however long? No, ta. Something's very wrong there.

Just to remind/inform people that Neil and Shula were an item for a while way back in the distant young farmers past (or so I believe).

I remember thinking several threads ago that there seemed to be the beginnings of a new and more actively fond relationship between Neil and Shula. Possibly when he was thinking of leaving the parish council?

They've switched things up a gear now - what with Neil and Susan's relationship becoming fractious and scratchy because of the junior-Carter troubles. And it's a neat touch to make riding (for Keira) the thing that will throw them together even more.

Keira's ten. How old was Freddie when he set off a bomb in Roy and Hayley's marriage?

Shula used to be very overinvested in Alan's relationship with Usha. Of course that was very complicated because (IIRC):

Shula was married to Mark

Mark was a solicitor who started his own practice in Borchester
It went well and Mark advertised for a partner - Shula was not best pleased when he decided the best applicant was Usha Gupta - I think the sticking point was Mark working closely with an attractive woman close to Shula's own age (not racism or religious bigotry at that point)

Shula and Mark started IVF, with the help of local GP Richard Locke
Mark was killed in a car crash

Richard made sure Shula went on with the injections and she soon discovered she was pregnant (with Daniel)

Richard was a big support to Shula in her bereavement and later when Daniel developed juvenile arthritis

Usha was also supportive to Shula and obviously had to see quite a bit of her while they sorted out Mark's estate

Richard and Usha became an item, and Richard moved into Blossom Hill Cottage with Usha

Shula became involved with Alistair, who had recently moved to the village to join the veterinary practice

Richard and Shula then had an affair, which was discovered (everyone in the village knew - wasn't it Susan who denounced Shula publicly at the cricket club AGM?)

Usha threw Richard out and relations between Shula and Usha have been glacial ever since

Richard decided to leave Ambridge and go to Manchester - he asked Shula to go with him - Shula had a fit of the vapours about moving outside the Ambridge forcefield, so that was the end of that

Alistair (incredibly) still wanted to marry Shula, and she decided to go ahead with that, leading to many years of dull marriage which eventually ended in divorce, but at least gave Dan a decent stepfather and stepgrandfather

Meanwhile, Alan arrived in the village and eventually became involved with and married Usha, to Shula's horror (this time religion was a big factor - Usha's a Hindu and Shula thought it was inappropriate for a C of E vicar to have a wife of another religion)

Obviously this has done nothing to mend relations between Usha and Shula. It's a great pity the SWs seem to have forgotten Usha exists, as I always enjoyed the very clear antagonism there. There was a minor scandal about the actress, IIRC, but they could have re-cast. I hate it when they just stop mentioning a previous major character with no explanation. See also: Kathy Perks. I fear Pat is going the same way.

Postscript to that massive screed - Alistair adopted Daniel, I think (there was some angst from Mark's parents about this, understandably), so he's Dan's father, not stepfather.

Dan's another character who hardly ever gets mentioned these days, but I suppose that's understandable. I wonder where he is. We don't even know that. (He's an officer in the army, for our newer listeners.)

Great summary.

Thanks, Teen! Slightly worrying how I can remember stuff like this from decades ago but struggle to remember why I've got up from the sofa and gone to the kitchen, but that's advancing years for you.

@theThreeofWeevils, that's OK. My admiration of Shula is enough.

In my solitary position, I can wonder in amazement why everyone accuses her of being smug.

Thanks for that exactly summary @Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g You have filled in some huge gaps in my knowledge! I only started listening about seven years ago so I’m still a real novice.

From your synopsis, it seems that life in Ambridge used to be far more interesting than it is now. Lots of affairs and inappropriate liaisons happening. Since I have been listening I don’t think there’s been even the hint of an affair apart from Adam and Charlie’s snog and that was very tame.

If you read the Daily Mail you would be forgiven for believing that the main way people have coped with lockdown has been by committing adultery but that doesn’t seem to be true for my acquaintances or those living in Ambridge. So interesting…

Anyway. I have to say that I don’t really care about the taxi war that has broken out between Rex and Eddie. There’s the grain of a real issue in there, I suppose, though the SLs probably could have made it more explicit by making Eddie an Uber driver.

Being stuck in a car with either would be a challenge for me though if I had to choose between them I would prefer to be driven by Rex simply because I couldn’t cope with Eddie’s endless inane chatter.

Can somebody remind me why Eddie and Clarrie are renewing their vows? I thought they did that a few years ago.

Has anybody been watching that Jeremy Clarkson farming series on Prime? I wonder whether Charlie Ireland and Kaleb Cooper could give the Scriptwriters a few hints and tips.

Because the SWs forgot and in the interest of a SL.